The Romanian electricity market operator OPCOM claims that it ensured proper functioning of trading platforms, and announces it will submit analysis on participants conduct on the day-ahead market to Energy Regulatory Authority ANRE by February 15.

OPCOM position is similar to the views expressed in ANRE report, which stated that the Day Ahead Market (DAM) functioned in a coupling mode in January 2017 and that OPCOM did not report possible notions related to inadequate conduct of market participants: manufacturers, transmission operators, distributors, suppliers and retailers. ANRE report could be based on OPCOM analysis, which received ANRE requests to submit the report on the first day of February.

In January, prices on the spot market OPCOM almost daily broke records, and the maximum price of EUR 151.5 per MWh was almost three times higher than the price in the first days of 2017.

OPCOM claims that the market was operated in compliance with regulations and procedures.

“In all intervals during January, offered quantities of electricity for sale and purchase enabled balancing commercial positions of market participants. The closing price on the market is the result of solid offers by participants on the spot market, presented through offers placed on trading platforms”, said OPCOM.

ANRE has recently developed a draft of measures prohibiting the participation of companies that do not fulfill obligations towards reserve suppliers in three sessions of simultaneous auctions on the Centralized Market for Universal Service (PCSU), on power exchange OPCOM.

Many officials, analysts and suppliers representatives have accused some of the participants in the auction on the power exchange for unilateral termination of the contract in order to sell electricity on DAM market, where the price in January was four times higher compared with PCSU, and amounted to EUR 151.5 per MWh.